USA ranked 27th in the world in education and healthcare—down from 6th in 1990

It’s not that Americans don’t spend a lot of money on these things. As a matter of fact, the U.S. spends more per student than almost any other country on education and way more than anybody else on healthcare.

The problem, or at least part of it, is that much of this money is spent inefficiently. The Nordic countries, which dominate the top spots on the list, have universal healthcare which provides better outcomes at a lower price than the American system does. Because of this system, the cost of drugs and health care administration is lower in Europe than in America. Last year, half a billion dollars was spent on lobbying on behalf of healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies, and insurance companies which could have been spent on actual healthcare.

Today, there are still around 30 million Americans without health insurance despite progress over the last decade. The number of those uninsured has increased in the last couple of years due to rollbacks on Medicaid and reduced advertising of government programs.

These inefficiencies add up to mean that, despite increased spending, America’s human capital scores hardly moved over the last three decades.